An Exciting Trip to the Strip (Shhh!...)

This is Mark, driving down to The Strip

at my request

A few weeks ago...

                            WooHoo!  We can see New York, NY right outside our car windows!

                                                            There's the MGM lion!

                                                        And a giant Coca-Cola bottle

                                                                         Gucci

                                             A giant balloon in front of the Eiffel Tower...ooh!

                                                                   Other fancy buildings

                             Where are we headed with this crowd?  We were just waved in to join them.
                                                               There's even a kilt or two...

                                                         Free food?  We didn't expect this.
                                                      We were just here to get a glimpse of

                                                                 The Donald!

                                   He gave a rip-roarin' speech that had some language shockers in it
                         We didn't fall asleep.  Oh no, we didn't.  I liked his ideas, and Mark did too
      We knew he wouldn't really run for president - but he knows how to get attention paid to his ideas

              I was in the very front row, and, when he came down the stairs, he looked right at me
                                                            as I snapped his picture!

                           Then we used our gift certificates and ate at a wonderful L.V. steakhouse

                                                   A yummy and fun evening out with Mark!
                                                                           Yahoo!

Okay, Here Goes...

Yes, I can definitely do this if I hurry and do it now, while Mark's asleep and I'm awake for a time (till my face falls into my keyboard).
And, yes, we are alive!  (Megan and Haley, I commented on a number of your posts, so you might want to ck. them.)  I got back down here to Nevada to see Mark, after switching my official residence from Melinda and Danny's to Ben and Linda's, since they have more room right now for me.  So far, either place has been wonderful, and I've gotten to know Linda so much better!
Melinda and I stopped by Dallin and Haley's one afternoon last week and that was fun.  And for a Mother's Day gift from all the afore-mentioned, we went to a Mindy Gledhill (?) concert.  She looked just like Tinker Bell, and she was so sweet...and sang like an expressive angel.  She shared so much with us about her songs; we actually got to know her a little!
So, thank you kids (may have been Justin's gift, too), and thank you, Phillip, for the gift cert. at Barnes and Nobles, and thank you for calling, Seth!   I don't want to emphasize that side of things so much as I seem to be doing - it's just that it was a great experience, and I love sharing activities with members of my family!

So, what have you been up to?  I have pics to post, but it's after midnite, so I'll do more of that in the a.m.  My back isn't used to typing - can you believe that?  I am sooo out of shape, but working on it.  Right now my specific goal is to drink enough, and I've been doing very well at that this past little while.  One thing at a time, right?  That's what Pres. Monson says.
I've been reading on lds.org a bunch lately, and reading in Helaman, where Moroni writes his letter to Pahoran.  That sections rocks!  I see new meaning in it each time I read it.  I love the scriptures!
Also, I've been reading Winds of Dune and Paul of Dune, some sequels to Dune Messiah and Dune, respectively, done by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, based on Frank Herbert's extensive notes.  I could just live in that world, it's so absorbing and hypnotic.
Anywho...I love many things and experiences.  I'm very sentimental and curious and visual and I get pulled right into good stories.  I see them in my mind as I read them, and absorbing stories on the screen are great too.

Oh, I meant to tell you, Nie Nie and hubby's interview with 20/20 is on NBC's website, and it's great!  Then there's an audio interview you can listen to, on Conversations, an LDS broadcast that I think you can find from her blog (The Nie Nie Dialogues) or at lds.org.  Both interviews were so simple and revelatory and inspiring, more than any others with them that I've seen.  Do you know that her blog has over 5 MILLION followers?!!  And before their airplane accident, she had like 200,000?!!  Can you imagine having that many followers on your blog?  My goodness!
They've given out 800 Book of Mormons that were requested of them, and 8 people have been baptized as  a result, but I think they mostly just inspire people and make them laugh.  Nie Nie loves so many things and people, and she loves her family so much.  It's an inspiration to see her love for being a mom, and, to me, that's more important than her recovery from the airplane accident.
That being said, their accident was so shocking and monumental!  They'd just had these beautiful family photos done, of Christian and Stephanie with their four  adorable kids, and then they were in the accident, and in drug-induced comas for so long.  Oh my goodness, how we prayed for them out in blogland!  Many people held sales and auctions and benefits to raise money for medical costs, etc., including Mindy G.
Nie's sister, Courtney, kept us posted on Nie Nie and Christian's condition.
Do you remember what that felt like?  Knowing they might die?  Wondering how they would deal with their long recovery, how they'd care for their family?  We were all right there with them, emotionally and spiritually.
And they've made a miraculous recovery.  Stephanie says she had a choice and she chose to come back for her family, even tho it would be tough.  I'm so glad she did!
She said she was with her grandmas.  Isn't that sweet?  I was with my Grandma Wakefield once, and I had a choice.  I also came back to be with my family.  I couldn't leave them fighting the good fight, while I was in this beautiful place where people were so happy.  I knew that wasn't right at that time, and I'm so glad I've been here and had the experiences I've had.  I've grown in so many ways since then, ways which I really needed to struggle with and learn about.  Heavenly Father really does help us when we ask for help.  It may not come right away, but it happens.  Usually when you aren't really paying attention, and then you realize that your prayers have been answered.
Prayer and fasting (or, in my case, modified fasting on a longer basis) really do bring down the blessing of Heaven.  That has helped me more than anything else, I think.  I found a way to fast and I told Heavenly Father about it and He was good with it!

So now you know where I am,  and what I've been doing and thinking about.  I ate grapes this evening, and I drank quite a bit, and I had a Macaroni and Cheese dish and a piece of whole wheat toast with some honey.  And then I took insulin!  It was yummy!  (The food, not the insulin)

Oh, and this morning we made more cards - my favorite activity here!  And I saw Amy, the prettiest puppy that the card lady's mother owns.  Amy is a doll!

Well, take care and everything, everything.
I love you!
xoxoxo

5-2-12 Part II

Okay, here are pictures from my visit to Idaho and the ward potluck/luau. Also, some cute pics of grandkids!

 

More later!
xoxoxo

I'm just going to start typing here and edit this later, because I get more intimidated as time goes on and I get more behind in posting!
So much has been going on, and that's why I've fallen behind. I have some pictures from my trip to Idaho, and I have pictures from Easter here, plus ones of our visit to the strip last Thurs.(?) to see a certain speech (later...shhh!), and ones of us eating at Fleming's, a fancy, fancy place (we had gift cards to go, given to Mark by various families).
I'll start with the present time: It's Sunday afternoon and Mark has a resident death to attend to, so he went over to his building. People come and go quickly over there. It's so startling to be in this environment, which is end-of-life, yet very positive. Usually we aren't so exposed to this aspect of living. It's sweet and it's sad for the families, yet a relief when death is a release from the grip of Alzheimer's.
I admire Mark for the work he does with families. He's helpful and efficient, yet
genuinely warm and compassionate. He's good at being empathetic, but not pitying or brought down by things he experiences. I'm afraid I would get too involved.
I've been having a real time staying hydrated enough - it's like a full-time job!

______Okay, Usama Bin Laden has been killed by our military. I feel like something inside me is sighing with relief, and I am close to tears. I want to applaud. A little justice has just been served up to the USA and people all over the world.
I hope Phillip's unit is celebrating, even as they go to a higher security alert.

All right, back to my regular blog post:
Every time I go out here, or when I just look at the clear desert sky, I am so grateful that Mark has work in Las Vegas, because I really, really love it here!!
I do! I love the desert in a way I never expected to. I love it's simplicity and complexity, its open spaces and dry air, the lack of seasons that we have in Idaho, I love its mix of ethnicities - Black, Hispanic, Japanese, Phillipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Caucasian, Indian, and on and on. All parts of the USA and Europe and Asia are represented. Every place on earth is represented!
Also, we are so close to natural and man-made wonders galore. It is thrilling to go for a drive to the store, because of the palm trees and the mountains and sun and sky (these mountains are giant, irregular monoliths - it is all like a landscape of Dune, both before and after its transformation. Something about it just stirs me!
And the people here are very friendly and upbeat, without seeming to be driven. Maybe its the lack of yardwork. I don't know, but I like it. They don't seem lazy or wicked or slothful - they seem hardworking and earnest, yet relaxed and happy. I admit, I haven't been here for very long at a time, but that's my first and second impression, for what it's worth.
I never feel like I need to go somewhere; it's all here. I like living where there is everything to do and see. I have always liked being smack-dab in the middle of things, ever since I was little and the youngest in my family, when I was often shielded from what was going on. It was for my own good, but I usually knew something was up, and I didn't like being out of the loop or shut out. That feeling has persisted for me through my adult life, when I was at home without a car, then working, then with small children, then with health problems and without a driver's license. I've had many adventures through my children, but I have slowly come to know for myself what is going on in the world, and most of it is unpleasant, but interesting. At least here I get a chance to do most anything I'd want to do. That's a very freeing sensation!
Maybe it's just not having any minor children at home, and no yard-work and home upkeep (besides cleaning), but I don't think that's everything. I also liked living outside of Chicago when I was little. There's something about being close to a big city that is invigorating to me.

I'm going to post this in several sections, so I'll post this part now...
Toodles (as Haley and Tara say ;)